Contributor:Clark Takashima

Painter, sculptor, muralist, Hawaii-born artist Clark Takashima loves his job. He’s been painting surfing waves for 37 years. His father taught him how to draw at age 5 when he wanted to portray everything he saw and experienced from air shows to animals at the zoo to deep sea fishing. Once Clark began surfing at age 13, there was one thing running through his brain waves: waves! So he painted them…constantly. His passion and dedication through the years has paid off, and his works now grace many walls – not only within the surfing world but the world at large too.
In 2007, while painting over an already varnished piece, Clark accidentally discovered how translucent color over the clear surface captured light and developed his own technique of acrylic paintings which he calls “the layered glaze” technique.
Clark explains, “By applying layers of clear glaze between translucent layers of paint, allows light to penetrate the layers below. This allows for color mixing to happen in varying lighting conditions on the canvas itself. Depending on lighting, daylight, afternoon light, or indoor lighting, the look and colors of the paintings morph. I’m now adding iridescent pigments and adding textures which gives the work a new dimension.”
Aside from developing his own techniques, Clark is dedicated to cultivating the relatively new genre of surf art. “I was inspired by meeting Clark Little and Heather Brown in 2006. We were all beginning our public careers and we shared information on how to market our work.” Competition was not a factor. Collaboration, hard work, and aloha were the keys to success.